Counties Bullets aim high
Team sports bring people together. Special Olympics Unified Sports teams do that, and much more. Half a million people worldwide take part in Unified Sports, breaking down stereotypes of people with intellectual disabilities in a really fun way.
Special Olympics team Counties Bullets, coached by Coach Wi Te Pou, is the first unified basketball team in New Zealand, and a pilot team for the Special Olympics Unified Basketball programme. They won the T1 tournament first division, with their first games playing as a team.
Unified Sports is an inclusive sports program that combines an equal number of Special Olympics athletes and partners (individuals without intellec- tual disabilities) on teams for training and competition.
It promotes social inclusion through shared training and competition for individuals with and without intellectual disabilities, on the same team.
It was inspired by the principle - training together and playing together is a quick path to friendship and understanding. Having sport in common is a way that preconceptions and false ideas are swept away.
Unified Sports has been a Special Olympics internationally sanctioned program since 1989. The goal is to make it mainstream in Australia and New Zealand.
The T1 tournament was an incredible experience and the Counties Bullets’ true advantage was that they played as a cohesive team, even though they had only been training together for a matter of weeks.
Coach Wi Te Pou said: ‘‘Our team worked well together. I knew they would and I wanted to showcase what could be done. Our Special Olympics athletes and mainstream athletes working together. Our community working together. Our mainstream players help, encourage and teach their team mates.’’
Referee John Heremaia had been involved in Special Olympics basketball for years and was also impressed with the concept of integrating the players.
‘‘Their teammates are getting that edge – thinking ahead and getting into open space instead of just bouncing the ball and passing. They are learning all the time, thinking about where they are going to place their passes, strategy wise, he said.